I bought a house at auction from Williams and Williams Real Estate Auction. It ended up that I had to use their title company Williams Title Company. The closing costs for a $71,000 home was over $7000!!! Over 10% of the purchase price. I thought I got a deal, but it turned out that the closing costs really sank the deal once I gave my earnest money at time of the auction.

The real kicker is the title insurance which was over 50% more expensive than the closest competitor for title insurance in that area.

housepurchaserAug 16, 2013

I purchase houses through online auctions alot and after reading this I have suggestions for anyone looking at these auctions. First of all don't pay the title insurance, have your own attorney complete a title opinion. This will allow you to not need the insurance. Title insurance is available in case you can't get a clear title. If your attorney did his job, you will know if its clear or not. I would question the closing cost. Normally closing cost will be 1 to 2 thousand, alot demands on the amount of taxes due and they will usually split that. Good luck

I have had e mails from "previous" Williams Auction employees, and they use the technology to drive the bids up, they have employees at live auctions fake bidding to drive the price up. Then if you do win the bid, they state the bank declined your offer and counter back at "market value" of the property. Additionally you have to pay their high auction fees as well.

I won Bid, offer was accepted, got loan, I paid for 3,000 worth in appraisal, Fema insurance, survey. I gave notice to landlord, was packed ready to move and They canceled last minute. They breached the contract and put the house back on the market at a higher price.

Fine print protects seller and screws buyer. In contract - you are not allowed to sue, seller has a right to back out. As a buyer you give up all your rights on there BS contract. No protection at all for the buyer.

I am sorry that you you had a bad experience, however I have lurched through W&W as well and they don't own a title company. Seller assigns title or buyer choice. Also, I think your post is misleading, there isn't $7,000 in closing costs, that cost also includes your agreed upon 5% buyers premium or $3,500 before you even placed you bid. I have never paid such an expensive fee in all my years.

I worked for WW for several years. They are the biggest scam for buying R/E. They run up bids, have fictitious bidders, negotiate higher bids after auctions, and screw both buyers and sellers. They speak of transparency and free markets, but if that were truly the case, there would be no need for all the antics I mentioned. Plain and simple they are shady and not trustworthy.

BAIT AND SWITCH!!!
they sell the home, you fill out all this paperwork, you put up a 5% deposit based on the price of the home which they immediately cash. You wait close to 20 days and they tell you THE BANK DECLINED YOUR OFFER. You have to fight to get your deposit back so your out that money for close to 6 weeks. Your left with nothing but a huge waste of time and a lot of stress. Please pass this one to everyone you know.

Im glad for the 411 on this company. I dislike wasting time for no reason.

00Reply

witnessed 2 auctions + one andSep 20, 2012

first time online only auction;
first I had looked at the property with a real estate agent and within 3 days (before I could make an offer) found out it had gone to W&W; I called W&W and was given misinformation about making an offer on the property so I waited for the auction and made a low bid just to familiarize myself with the process then when tried to make my high bid and it would not let me place another bid; being my first online RE auction experience I thought maybe I was not allowed another bid until my current bid was passed so I kept watch on the auction for days and had the high bid up until the last minute and forty seconds; I was prepared withhmy high bid set and placed it the second I saw my bid was passed but got an error message 3 times; since the end time is suppose to be dynamic and the new bidder placed 2 bids within the last 2 minutes the auction should have extended 2 minute 2 times which should have been ample time for my bid; I immediately called W&W and got no help; they said they would check into it then tried to tell me it was my internet service; all I asked was for them to check the high bid and if my high bid was higher then the auction should be awarded to me or they should void the whole auction; they said they would get back with me but never did; I found out from the real estate agent that another bidder had similar problems with the same online auction.
At the very least they are incompetent and unprofessional.

00Reply

RNK9Jul 12, 2012

Currently buying a property. The site crashed as we were bidding the last few minutes, luckily my mom was setting up her account and she followed thru at the very last minute, as you only have two minute to get a bid in after the last. BUT the closing is ambiguous and phone calls don't get returned. E-mails pop up in a very impersonal fashion, but I have repeatedly told them not to contact me thru e-mail to call me. I have called twice per day left messages, no return calls. Now they have e-mailed me that there was an error in my deposit ?? never a problem with my credit card before. If I don't respond in 72 hours, the deal is off and I lose my deposit ?? I thought it didn't go thru ? So basically their customer service is a 1 out of 10 for me.

00Reply

Still waitingJun 26, 2012

I am waiting for Williams & Williams to get back to me regarding a website malfunction during an online only auction in which I lost the bid during the last 2 minutes.... Not only was the bidding process malfuncioning but the Dynamic End Time did not transpire so I was SNIPED...

I will update on the outcome of that call.

00Reply

experience auction galJun 26, 2012

you make a valid point, however, the auctions I am familiar with are being represented as absolute auctions... so that brings back the
to KW
question why does the seller have the option to accept or reject the high bid... they should be representing it as "sells with reserve" but we all know this would detour a lot of potential buyer's and the way an auction works is the more bidder's the better the chance of a "feeding frenzy" which can make bidder's get caught up in the excitement and bidding more.

00Reply

I too am confusedJun 26, 2012

to "bid online"
the way I understand it... when an auction is both on line and on site the online bid is different from online only auctions which have a maximum bid that goes up by proxy bid in preset increments. When an online bidder bids against an on site bidder his bid becomes the next increment; as a to why they were still trying to get on site bids that was lower, I too am confused.

00Reply

witnessed 2 auctionsJun 26, 2012

On the first auction; the auction service had been talking the on site bidder into "just one more bid" several times; when he quit bidding, the bid was awarded to the "online bidder"; then the ringman said the online bidder in fact had not bid so it went to the on site bidder... I have to wonder how many more of the online bids possibly had not been bid.

On the second auction there were 2 on site bidders then one dropped out and the auctioneer was about to drop the hammer when a ringman called out an online bid and the online bids pushed the price up $10,000 but when the on site bidder dropped the bid they tried to says he had the final bid instead of the online bidder; when the on line bids were questioned the auction service told the on site bidder he was welcome to view the online bidding to see the actual bids. When the buyer went to the auction website, the bidding history was no longer available as no on had bothered to mention it was only available for 24 hours (how convenient)and even if the site had shown bids there is no way to know if they were placed by an authentic bidder.

Hard to believe these kind of mistakes happen this often and if so it is not very professional. I guess that leaves the two choices unprofessional or dishonest....hmmm...
but who cares as long as they get the money right?

00Reply

Dean Williams is a fraud......Jun 12, 2012

Agreed with all the above.

00Reply

StephanieJun 08, 2012

Same thing happened to me. I placed an online bid and got the house for my exact highest bid amount. I am sure they did something like the other persons post --anounced my highest bid instead of bidding up to that amount. However, the bid was lower than anything else I could have purchased in the area so I am very happy. There were no issues with the sale and now (four years later) I am selling the house - in escrow now- and making 20,000 off it!!

00Reply

smittyFeb 05, 2012

The whole problem is investors get screwed when you try to buy govt. foreclosed houses most of the time investors have to wait 15 days they want a owner occupant which is discrimination so just because it a bussiness for an invester and he has cash they don't like you because they want to suck the money from you. lets put it like this, if someone goes to walmart with food stamps and you have cash it is no different if they say we can't take you because you have cash once the food stamps people are done if there is anything left then you may buy this is communism not america . Just like the govt. saying you can't sell for 90 days a fannie may or hud so if this is the case then a car dealer should not be allowed to sell used cars they bought for 90 days they rip off the consumer more then anyone else they are not regulated so they the house flipper when they sell there is appraisels and and all kind of regulation we need the same for car dealer that lie and pray on innocent people this is buy far discrimmination to house flippers.

00Reply

NC bid callerNov 20, 2011

I've been to a W&W auction near my home and the process was conducted according to state auction law. While most people are used to and somewhat understand the standard real estate sales process, the overwhelming majority have no clue as to how different the real estate auction is.

A lot of problems will be solved and issues resolved if sellers will start reading the contracts and buyers start reading the terms of sale. When the seller agrees to sell their house, they agree to terms in a contract with an auctioneer that is discussed well in advance of the sell.

Buyers are subject to the terms of the sale, which are listed and readily available long before the auction date. If you fly to attend an auction, you are taking your own risk because an auction can be postponed or cancelled for a myriad of reasons. If you pay the required deposit the day of auction and can't complete the terms of sale, it's not the seller's fault and it's not the auctioneer's fault.

Learn the rules before you commit to sell or buy using the auction sales method for real estate. A professional auctioneer will not only answer your questions because he/she legally has to on account of disclosure laws, they will gladly answer them to help you understand exactly what the process is and what to expect.

Auctioneering is a profession that its members make great strides to maintain standards of honesty and integrity. You can have 1000... honest auctioneers doing their jobs diligently, but one bad auctioneer can ruin the reputation of an entire industry. That one bad auctioneer is the one that the other 1000 of us want to see lose their license and no longer be allowed to sell by auction.

Those states that require auctioneers to be licensed and take continuing education should be commended and those that have no requirements or standards for auctioneers need to get started. You know those crappy reality shows with rude auctioneers and lots of showboating? They occur in states with no laws concerning auctions and auctioneer conduct.

Good luck to everyone buying and selling property by auction. Just remember to read your contracts, terms and conditions of sale and please, please, PLEASE ask questions if you are unsure about ANYTHING regarding the sale. A happy seller and an informed buyer are what all we strive for! Show more

00Reply

Jessica FisherNov 16, 2011

Tried to bid on some property they had listed and their site crashed. I lost my bid and lost the property and they refuse to fix this issue. Not only did I end up on the losing end, I wonder how the seller feels that he got a low bid and no one else had the chance to offer anymore than the ending amount. Who is going to fix it? No one, and this auction was improperly executed, not finished competently, and they have my thumbs down vote. NO WAY W&W